Ch.13 - "Raesha - meh ho owmer"

Eve dropped by the computer lab some time later. "Listen, my extended family is holding a Passover Seder at our house next Saturday's night. Normally, what I would have done then, is go out of the house to avoid it. But this year, I decided to stay."

"OK, " I said, "So?"

"Well, I was wondering if you'd like to join us?"

"Sure, " I said, "I've got nothing better to do at that time."

"Great." Eve said. "I'll see you then."

So the next Saturday, I took some time to prepare. I recalled that some observant Jews frowned upon females wearing pants and stuff like that, so I wore a nice dress. And so I walked to Eve's house.

Eve answered the door. "Hi Jennifer!" she said. She was also wearing a nice dress with flowers and all. There was a lot of commotion in the house, and many voices, both of grown-ups and children were heard. "Please come in, make yourself at home. Here, let me introduce you to my family."

And so, I met with Eve's uncles, aunts, cousins, and grand-parents. After we finished meeting all of them we went to the living room, where Daniel and his cousin Deborah were busy playing a video game. "You suck at this. " Daniel announced, as he won another round.

"Well, you have this game at your house, while I don't, so you can get much more practice." his cousin responded.

"Would you two like a round?" Daniel asked Eve and I, "this game is stupid anyhow."

"OK.", "Sure." we said.

Deborah looked a bit at us as she released her game-pad. "Say, you two have such wonderful hair. Can I play with it?"

"Hey, I want to play with it, too!" Daniel said.

"Sure!" I said as I grabbed the game-pad.

"No problem here, either. Just don't… don't mix the strands of two different people." Eve said.

"Here, we'll sit apart." I said as I took a little distance from Eve.

"So what does every button do?" I said.

Eve explained as best as she could, and we started to play. I was not particularly good at it, but Eve seemed to suck even more.

"Daniel's right. This game is stupid." she said. "You know, some of the old DOS games were much more intelligent. Lots of puzzle games, Adventure games, and things you need to think to progress in. I still like to play them using a Linux-based DOS emulator."

"Well, I've never been a big computer games fan. " I said, "Freecell is almost the only game I play. Of course, I find playing it with PySol on Linux much nicer than with the Windows-shipped one."

"Heh. Microsoft Freecell is absolute crap." she said, as her character successfully hit mine.

She added: "You know, I actually read a review for a recent game that came out - a first-person shoot-them-up. The review said it had good graphics and all, but otherwise you had an infinite amount of ammunition, and you just had to kill an infinite amount of monsters coming at you. Pretty dull. Still it concluded by saying it may be good for the hot summer, instead of saying it sucked completely."

"You're doing it all wrong! " Deborah said to Daniel, "Here let me show you how to arrange a girl's hair."

"Heh. " I said, and we continued playing for a several minutes.

"Everybody, we're getting started!" Eve's mother cried, and we gathered to the dining table. Eve and I rose up, and walked towards the table. As we passed by, Mrs. Siegel said, "Eve, Jennifer, what happened to your hair?"

Eve and I looked at each other, then burst out laughing simultaneously. "Heh, never mind." Eve said, "we'll fix it later."

Eve and a few other relatives who knew how to read Hebrew, started reading the Passover Hagaddah (= Ceremonial Transcript) in turn, translating it to English on the fly, each time instructing us what to do. When we reached the part with the four sons that the Jewish Law spoke against, and the Evil one, Eve said:

"For this part, I have prepared in advance a Goyah…" and she pointed at me.

"Heh, a Shiksa."

"OK, I'll read it with your help." I said.

"OK: 'Rasha - mah hu omer?'"

"Raesha - meh ho owmer?"

"Close enough!", and so we continued.

After a while the food came, and after a meal some people continued reading the Hagaddah, while most of the others packed everything or simply talked or played around. It was a lot of fun.

After the ceremony, Eve and I fixed the strands of each other's hair. "You know, Daniel and Deb may have a hidden talent as hair stylists." Eve said.

"You think so?" I said, as we switched places, "Your hair is a bit inconsistent. If they do have a talent, then I guess it is indeed very well hidden."